Media Conservatives
State-Funded Censors Wage War on
Left-Wing NewsGuard censors conservatives by blocking advertisers and readers. BY BENJAMIN WEINGARTEN
A
merica’s “ruling class” has erected a censorship regime to wage war on dis- senters.
Led by the national security appa-
ratus and its partners in government, it has conspired with Big Tech and corporate media to suppress ideas that challenge their own — and to silence
individuals who espouse them. One entity in this vast web is a seemingly innocuous company called NewsGuard, the brainchild of Steven Brill, founder of Court TV, and Gordon Crovitz, former publisher of The Wall Street Journal, longtime members of the journalistic establishment. Founded in 2018, it publishes “trust scores” for more than 8,500 news and
NewsGuard Thinks Right Is Wrong N
ewsGuard serves America’s censorship regime by helping drive down right-of-center outlets’ revenues and raising
their costs of doing business by treating them as purveyors of dangerous “wrongthink.” A 2021 analysis from the conservative Media Research Center
found that “left” or “left-leaning” outlets rated on average 27 points higher than “right” or “right-leaning” outlets in terms of their “credibility,” as classified by media bias rater AllSides. NewsGuard rated leftist sites like Mother Jones, key
propagator of the debunked Steele Dossier, with an 87.5 rating while punishing The Federalist with a 12.5 rating, largely for questioning mask mandates. Those garnering perfect credibility scores include The New York
Times, The Washington Post, and Politico — peddlers of the Trump- Russia collusion hoax, and discreditors of the truthful Hunter Biden
58 NEWSMAX | MAY 2023
information websites. It bases its rat- ings on nine purportedly “apolitical” criteria used by a team of journalists to assess “credibility and transparency.” While presenting itself as neutral,
this subjective arbiter of truth in media has served as a key cog in America’s burgeoning “disinformation industrial complex” targeting “wrong thinkers,” generally on the right, on matters from election integrity to COVID-19. “What is NewsGuard?” Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., asked environmental
laptop story, which NewsGuard’s Steven Brill dubbed a “hoax.” These ratings have a major impact. NewsGuard partners with top advertising agencies
and exchanges, “enabling advertisers to divest from the misinformation economy and redirect their ad spending to support high-quality journalism instead.” NewsGuard’s efforts are also likely to kill trafic to right- leaning outlets. Through its partnerships with Microsoft and other platforms
and technology companies, NewsGuard ratings reach millions of users; with news aggregators like MSN, it influences a half-billion more; with the 1.7 million strong, progressive American Federation of Teachers — plus their students — and libraries serving 7 million users, still millions more, importantly including children. Right-of-center outlets incur other costs, too.
MAHA HEANG 245789/SHUTTERSTOCK
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